Lieutenant Commander Marta Valeris

Character Information

Gender

Female

Species

Bajoran

Age

41

Physical Appearance

Height

5’ 7”

Weight

143 lbs

Hair Color

flame red

Eye Color

green-grey

Physical Description

A woman of noticable looks with the red hair and green eyes. Although short, she posesses physical strength and agility that aren't noticable due to her distinctly feminine features. She has the typical nasal ridges of a Bajoran. She has several scars along her body, remnants of the rough childhood that she never had removed as a memory of it, a reminder of what she'd lived through and survived.

Personality & Traits

General Overview

Despite a rough childhood Marta turned out a cheerful and sociable person, however the bitterness and sarcasm, discipline and determination have remained. She is fiercely loyal and protective of her friends and crew, also a good team player and a leader. She's a quiet individual, and will rather listen than talk, but when she talks about things that interest her she can hardly stop. She is also a good listener and wise confidante.

A true scientist at heart, facts and evidence comes first, she is respectful of other people's traditions and customs, yet hatred towards Cardassians and the Dominion remain strong.

A ready smile for anyone, she makes friends easily. She has a dry wit, and is quite fond of banter when she does engage in conversation. In terms of relationships and friendships, she makes friends easier than she attains lovers. Valeris is no stranger to casual encounters, but she rarely really attaches herself to someone (whether she knows it or not she looks for depth, friendship, connection and understanding but hasn't found the right mix yet, or doesn't know she has yet).

She rarely fully confides in people and doesn't talk about herself much, and is prone to depression, but publically she hides it well.
Valeris loves animals, but prefers cats over all of them.

Marta is an Ohaluvaru, a follower of the teachings of Ohalu who preaches that the Prophets are guides and teachers rather than deities.

- racial prejudice: Cardassians, Vorta, Founders
- will take a life without second thought if needed
- prone to depression, attends counselling sessions whenever possible
- often overworks herself and ends up asleep in her office
- suffers from arachnophobia to the point of barely controlable panic
- suffers from mild hydrophobia (specifically drowning - since the Revan incident) - is slowly trying to combat it

Ambitions

Her ambitions aren't set in stone as her life has taken so many drastic turns lately, she is mostly focused at doing her job well, making quality connections with people. She has no solid plans to settle down at the moment, but if the right person came along she very well could.

Hobbies & Interests

Socializing, reading (terran fantasy and crime novels), catching up on various scientific works and journals, researching into Bajor and Federation's history and archaeology, practicing the Vulcan martial art of ke-tarya and the combat style she grew up with in the Resistance, sar'jeno. She's quite partial to old Earth music, and folk music of various species, particularly Human, Bajoran and Vulcan. She loves to sing (mezzosoprano) and dance.

Personal History

Pre-Starfleet:

Born in 2350, into the thick of the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, to Trel and Anarias, who had already had one son, Ti'an, born the year before. The following year their sister Livna was born. The children were hidden away at a very early age in the Kiessa Monastery, where they were schooled by the monks, while their parents fought in the Resistance, and the children never heard from their parents again. Very early on, all three profiled themselves in different fields of interest, yet they were a tight-knit group that always looked out for eachother.

Ti'an was more combat oriented, and yearned to join the Resistance movement when he was old enough. Valeris was the scientist of the group, showing great interest and love of history, archaeology and sociology. She shared her brother's yearning to join the Resistance and do her part for the liberation of Bajor. Livna was the calmest and most religious of the three. She knew her path was that of the monks who took care of them. She wanted to help liberate Bajor aswell, but she would do it in her own way, through the strengthening of the faith, belief in the Prophets, and missionary work.

When Valeris was 11, Ti'an left the monastery to join the local Higa-Mentar Resistance Cell. It was during that year that the siblings learned that their parents had been imprisoned at Gallitepp where they subsequently died of disease and malnutrition. Valeris researched more into the family line and discovered that they had a paternal cousin alive, one Torrna Maliya of Janir City. The following year, Ti'an resurfaced and offered to take Valeris with him, which she readily accepted, while Livna refused decisively.

This was when contact between the siblings thinned out considerably, given the dangerous circumstances surrounding activity within a Resistance cell. Ti'an and Valeris learned how to shoot, kill with and without, create explosives, hand to hand combat. In 2365 another surprise came in the form Torrna Maliya, daughter of their long dead uncle Varro Antosso. Valeris, Ti'an, and Livna approached her one evening whilst her cell was taking shelter in the Ka'Tesh Monastery. All four of them and nearly the entire cell was almost wiped out the same night in a surface to surface missile attack by Cardassian troops. Luckily most got out alive and the Marta's and Torrna kept in contact.

In 2366. Valeris had been captured while on a mission to Vareesh village (where a Cardassian assault unit was stationed) with a fellow resistance fighter to destroy the water and food supply. The man was killed, and Valeris was taken prisoner. She was taken to Kran-Tobol prison, where she suffered torture. She spent a week in the prison, never revealing the location or the plans of her cell. She was captured due to a misstep in checking the validity of intel by her brother Ti'An. Livna had in the meantime alerted the Ornathia cell, and cousin Maliya who were in the vicinity of the prison for aid.

Torrna assisted the Marta's cell with freeing the prisoners, and spent the next year helping Valeris recuperate in a sheltered place. It was during that year, that the two cousins began to rethink their desires in life and their future on Bajor.

It was then decided the two would try to leave Bajor and establish a new life elsewhere, as Valeris in no condition to fight, and Maliya's own beliefs and life path had been shaken so deeply, she was in no condition either. So, their goal was the seemingly friendly and open Federation. Ti'an considered the same, but eventually decided to accept the rank of Captain he'd been offered by the newly established Bajoran militia.

Starfleet:

Their chance came in 2368, when they hitched a ride on a refugee ship bound for Federation space. Once they arrived to earth, both girls were approached by one Commander Cyra Elshar, a Bajoran woman who'd served in the Starfleet for many years, and after long talks with them agreed to sponsor them for their Acadey exams. Both spent the next year in preparatory courses and learning languages they needed, again sponsored by Commander Cyra. Later the same year she was enrolled into Starfleet Academy, her choice of department Science (History, Archaeology/Exo Archaeology/Anthropology/Alien Anthropology).

Her time at the Academy was rather lonely, she barely saw her cousin who went on to become a physician and on her own path in life. Valeris didn't make friends easily, being in a different environment with different alien species. But slowly she adapted and graduated with honors in 2373.

Her first assignment was to the USS Versailles, where she was assigned as a Historian. Unfortunately, several months later, the Dominion War broke out and the Versailles was assigned as part of the fleet fighting along the Vulcan border, where she stayed for the remainder of the War, leaving it only to participate in the attack to retake Deep Space Nine. As the war ended, the Versailles was reassigned to conduct science missions along the Romulan border.

Promoted to Lieutenant, and reassigned to the USS Sergei Rachmaninov, where she was assigned as Chief Science Officer, in 2379. The Commanding Officer of the Rachmaninov, Captain Fang Jia-Li suggested that she undertake tactical and command training due to her resistance background, as she showed potential to be more than a Science officer. It wasn't so much of a suggestion as a shove in the said direction. Marta went into training in 2380, spending two years in Advanced Tactical Training, and two in Command training. In 2384. she returned to serve as the Rachmaninov's Chief Science Officer untill her decomissioning in 2386, when she was reassigned to the USS Revan as Chief Science Officer and Second Officer.

Eventually she was assigned as the Revan's XO, until the attack on the ship by the rogue crew of the Reuben James which managed to kidnap part of the crew, whilst the rest were left to their fate on the rapidly falling Revan. Marta was among those left on the ship as it plunged through the atmosphere into the water covered world they were in orbit of. Valeris managed to extract all of the crew that was left aboard.

Upon reunion with the others on the Reuben James which had been taken over by Captain David Haggerty, things took a turn for the worse. Captain Haggerty and the Revans's CMO Paul Saville tortured the Reuben James's CO and CMO, using the biological weapon the Qickening on the CMO to get the CO to talk. Valeris walked in on them in the middle of the questioning. Shocked by the behavior of her CO and lover, she was at a loss as to what to do first. But as anger and disappointment set in she did the only thing that was right.

Marta contacted the JAG office with the description of the events that took place and the subsequent torture she witnessed. Unbeknownst to her, the Revan's Chief of Security, Lieutenant James Storm had done the same merely hours later.

Captain Haggerty and Doctor Saville were arrested a few days later, the crews of the Revan and the Reuben James disbanded. Marta reunited with Storm briefly during the trials as they were both witnesses for the prosecution before Marta was reassigned to the USS Peruggia as XO to Captain T'Sen. Her brother Ti'An was killed in 2389 in a routine training accident back on Bajor. Details remain vague to this day. As much as she was grieving the loss, Valeris didn't find the strength to return to Bajor, not even for this. Her sister Livna understood and has never held it against her.

After a year as Executive Officer on the Peruggia Valeris was reunited with her cousin Maliya and her partner and future husband, Jack Lashmore as they ran a special operations unit within Starfleet Intelligence called Spectre. The latter two later resigned from Starfleet after a classified incident and settled on Driaan V where they reformed the Spectre unit.

Valeris was present at their wedding along with her younger sister, now a Vedek, Livna who performed the ceremony. When she returned to Starfleet an offer from Starfleet Academy awaited her to teach several classes to newly fledged Science Cadets. On several occasions she collaborated with the Starfleet Criminal Investigative Service division.

When her cousin Maliya was killed, Valeris took some leave of absence to return to Driaan and grieve, pay her respects and do what she can for Jack, late Maliya's husband. Upon return to Starfleet several months later, she put in for a transfer to a more active job, the urge to get out there and do good reawakened.

Several months later she was offered a full transfer to the Starfleet Criminal Investigative Service due to her commendable work as consultant on cases and was additionaly trained in several law and investigative procedures. For a few months she worked at SCIS headquarters on Earth before an opportunity came mid 2391 when she was assigned to the USS Cerberus as SCIS Liaison, under Commander Etaera Lin. There she reunited with an unexpected blast from the past, Jack Lashmore.